#Review - The Assassin's Revenge by Shana Vernon #Fantasy

Series: The Hybrid Chronicles # 2
Format: Kindle, 318 pages
Release Date: October 15, 2020
Publisher: Shana Vernon
Source: Kindle
Genre: Urban Fantasy

My name is Lenna Turgenov, and I'm an assassin.
I decided to stay at the Guild undercover, itching for revenge. 

They killed Papa, and now they need to pay. The Guild has a dirty secret, one I'm determined to bring to out into the light.

They've been hunting innocent vampire-human hybrids, a species the regular world has no clue even exists. 

Can I avenge Papa and save the hybrids before the Benefactor catches on and kills us all?

The Assassin's Revenge is the second installment in author Shana Vernon's The Hybrid Chronicles. Picking up right where The Assassin's Daughter finished, Lenna Turgenov infiltrated the Guild to find out what happened to her father. She did. She also broke numerous rules that her father tried to tell her about keeping her head down, and not letting anyone know who she is for fear of reprisals. The good news is that she found her father. The bad news is that she didn't do enough to bring him home. Now, Lenna has an agenda. Find every person who was responsible for what happened to Alexei. 

Leena is different from other assassins. She can use light to manifest weapons, she can make herself invisible, and she can shift her form into a hawk. Leena choose to pick up where Alexei left off by finding and saving as many hybrids as she can. She choose to work with Maximus who is a vampire friend of Alexei's and thus Leena. She chooses to help another vampire named Luka who may be more important than he's letting on from being killed by Guild assassins. But, while Leena and her friends Sofia, Ryder, and others have joined together and are working together for a similar goal, they can’t forget that they still must pass certain tests before they become full time assassins that get their own contracts.

And, to make matters worse, if Leena’s identity becomes known by certain Guild members who are her enemies and even her friends, it could be the end for her even before she has a chance to do as much damage to the Guild as possible. Even if that means working with other hybrids. To make matters worse for Leena, Cade Abbot, the boy she fell for, may be the one person to make all her carefully laid plans crashing down because of what he’s involved in. What’s even more curiouser is the entrance of a character who may be her own brother as well as a hybrid and that could mean that her own mother is alive and well, but simply walked away from Leena and abandoned her. 

Unforgivable. Zander’s appearance throws Leena for a loop since she's always been told that her own mother was dead including by her alleged Aunt Master Locke. It means that there is an entirely secret city for hybrids, but she’s not so forgetful to walk away from her main goals of revenge and protection innocents. There’s plenty of action and suspense in this story. There is also a bit of bloodshed as Leena refuses to allow a moment of peace for the Guild as well as those who are targeting what now appears to be her kin. The book does end on a cliffhanger ending, and I am hopeful a new story will be releasing soon.   

 

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#Review - The Assassin's Daughter by Shana Vernon #Paranormal #Fantasy

Series: The Hybrid Chronicles # 1
Format: Kindle, 195 pages
Release Date: July 15, 2020
Publisher: Shana Vernon
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Urban Fantasy

I've been hiding from the Guild since I was born.
If they knew about my magic, they would kill me in a heartbeat.

I should be avoiding them, but instead, I enter the Guild as a regular human recruit.

Why?

Papa went missing after a mission, and I need answers.

I realize I might have bitten off more than I can chew when my new instructor is the guy I kissed a few months before.

It doesn't seem like Cade recognizes me without my disguise, but if he does and blows the whistle, I'm as good as dead and so is Papa.

The Assassin's Daughter is the first installment in author Shana Vernon's The Hybrid Chronicles. Lenna Turgenov's father Alexei is an assassin who works for the Guild. The Guild is an ancient organization of assassins who accept contracts against the worst members of society. The humans or vampires the Government either won't or can't touch. But, Alexei's been missing for 14 days and the only person who may have any idea what became of him is the head of the Russian Brava, Maximus Chernov. Oh, and Maximus is also a powerful vampire.

After Lenna visits with Maximus who has been waiting for her to make an appearance, he tells her that Alexei was likely taken captive by a member of the Guild. That he probably found out information about key players within the Guild who are using the organization for their own nefarious gains. There's a twist to this story. Lenna is not supposed to exist. You see, one of the 6 rules that every assassin who works for the Guild is required to obey is, no children. There is also the fact that they don't want kids with special abilities running around. Abilities invisibility, shape-shifting, and healing.

So, Lenna, who is not supposed to exist, decides that she is going to bash her way into the Guild and find out what happened to her father. Entrance to the Guild requires you to kidnap a member and bring them to the Guild or by invitation. After Lenna's successful entrance, she's given a chance to become one of the newest (6) initiates. Each initiate is given a special concoction to drink that will brink out any latent abilities. Since Lenna was secretly trained by her father in all sorts of weapons and poisons, she has to keep a lower profile than her fellow initiates Axel, Ekon, Ryder, Hailey, Brielle, and Sofia. 

But, when she encounters a boy that she's met before, her cover could be blown and her mission could quickly end even before it begins. There is also the fact that Lenna can't truly trust any of the Masters for fear they are involved in Alexei's disappearance. So, this book is a real quick read at only 195 pages. There is plenty of action during training. The ending kind of left a bad taste in my mouth because of the authors choices. The story also ends with a voice telling Lenna that they know exactly who she is. Who was that voice? 

I'm going to go out on a limb and say I will likely read the sequel to this story. I need to find out about the so called Hybrids that this series is named after. I need to know what Lenna's relationship to Maximus really is and how far back it goes.

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